Bharti Hexacom Limited (NSEI:BHARTIHEXA) is likely to initiate a fresh valuation of its 3,400 telecom towers before inviting new bids from tower asset companies for their sale, said people with direct knowledge of the matter. The Bharti Airtel unit is likely to seek the bids through an open and transparent process in line with Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) guidelines and Sebi rules, the people said. Bharti Hexacom was recently forced to halt plans to sell the wireless communication towers to Indus Towers after objections from key shareholder, state-run Telecommunications Consultants India Ltd. (TCIL).
TCIL sought a fresh process that met its requirements as a government stakeholder. The tower asset sale, it is learnt, was also deferred following differences between Bharti and TCIL over the INR 330 million per tower valuation of Bharti Hexacom?s tower assets pegged by global professional services firm, Grant Thornton. ?In line with transparency and robust corporate governance, we have agreed to put the current (Bharti Hexacom) proposal in abeyance and initiate a fresh process as required by our significant minority shareholder TCIL,?
a Bharti Airtel spokesperson said, responding to ET?s queries. The Airtel spokesman, though, added that the company ?remains convinced about the business logic and merits of the earlier (Bharti Hexacom) proposal? which got endorsement and strong support from shareholders and proxy agencies.
TCIL, Indus and Grant Thornton did not respond to queries.
